Director
M. Night Shyamalan has emerged as one hell of a storyteller. Much of his style
is reminiscent of an early Spielberg. With the beautifully crafted Sixth Sense,
this skilled showman re-created the ghost story. Two years later he followed that
picture up with the brilliant and vastly underrated Unbreakable, in which he re-created
the super hero movie. Now M. Night takes a crack at the alien invasion (or is
it?) picture with mixed results.
In
this tense thriller, Mel Gibson plays an ex-man-of-the-cloth who loses his faith
when an unspeakable tragedy alters his life. Soon, he begins to question his sanity
when strange crop circles start appearing in his corn fields.
Are
these strange signs created by an alien life form or is the whole thing a mere
hoax? Shyamalan gives us the answer but I'll be damned if I'm going to expose
it here. Actually, Shyamalan is more interested in his characters than the circumstances
in which they are involved. This isn't to say that Signs is strictly a character
study. It is a tension builder and one can't help but be reminded by Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, Night of the Living Dead and War of the Worlds while it plays
out.
With a Hitchcock
style of suspense and a Spielberg flavored framework, Signs emerges as an engrossing
thriller that will suck you in, but like myself, I think many may feel let down
by it's payoff. It's completely evident what Shyamalan is going for here. Subtlety.
I'm all for that. Sometimes, less is more, but here, the subdued climax seemed
a bit silly to me. It's hard to explain without giving things away, so let me
just say that the fashion in which the hero squares off against the villain left
me a bit confused. Rather than rooting for the good guy, I found myself giggling
at the screen because the moment just seems so goofy. What directly follows is,
in my opinion, the most powerful moment in the film, but rather than ending the
picture on this note, we get the obligatory "following season" sequence,
in which we see what has become of a major character. It was all to obvious, and
I really felt force-fed.
Mel
Gibson is strong despite his parts heavy handed characterization. He has many
moments of undeniable power, most notably a scene in which he has an exchange
with a local played by the director of the film himself. Shyamalan usually makes
brief appearances in his pictures, but here he extends it to a supporting role
and he doesn't seem up to the emotional challenge. Joaquin Phoenix has too much
fun as Gibson's smart ass brother (a role that was supposed to go to Mark Ruffalo).
He has an energy that's really engaging, but there were moments where his outbursts
of humor seem to offset the building tension. Gibson's two children are effectively
played by Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin. They're both terrific and surprisingly
eccentric.
The
star of Signs is of course it's director, and while I wasn't as impressed with
this as I was with his last two pictures, there's a lot here to admire. Many of
his unique touches are quite amusing (watch for his ode to an infamous footage
of Bigfoot) and he always tries to take a "what if" approach to this
material. I also liked how something as simple as water comes into play, much
the same way it did in Unbreakable.
From
Shyamalan's crafty direction to James Newton Howard's masterful, Bernard Herman
inspired score, Signs is an interesting picture. While certainly flawed and heavy
handed, it was also tense and unpredictable (with the exception of a couple of
previously mentioned moments).
I
really admire Shyamalan. He isn't interested in giving us an over-the-top, effects
laden picture like the overrated Independence Day. He uses the premise as a structure
to house a story about real people caught up in an extraordinary situation. The
whole alien invasion can be seen as a metaphor for more earthly issues and I applaud
him for attempting something different.
Signs
will surely spark up conversation. There will be people who love it and people
who hate it, but very few in between. Consider me one of those few. That said,
I really look forward to Shyamalan's next picture.
